Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Tour of Alaska, 2014

My favs from the trip. Random photos.

Many asked us, "why go to Alaska in the winter?" I'm so glad we did. Not to say our summer trip wasn't "a trip" as well, but I don't feel we lost anything visiting in the winter. It's just different.
Plus of course I wanted to do a couple races, one I've wanted to do for many years, and I was interested if we could see some cool northern lights, which we did, at least for one night.

The people you see in the winter are the people that live there, the places open are open for the locals. It's as if the State is sitting back and relaxing during the winter, just being themselves, before the big rush of tourists and "putting on a face" for them. During the summer when we were there in cities like Juneau we noticed the locals taking a deep breathe between cruise ships, they actually did change, we watched it as we weren't tied to a cruise ship schedule, we were on our own....the winter is like that, only more than breathe, a total laying down on the lounger and taking in a nice long hot toddy and a good cigar.

Maybe if I'd stay out of the micro-brew houses I'd be this skinny to kick ass racing????

Boy Scout Eagle Project, nice job, Albert!

Mt. Redoubt.

Homer...next number of pics.

Plenty of museums to visit.

Seward sequence.

On the road from Seward back to Anchorage.

Lynn's pics from the Iditarod Museum at Knik, the start of the ITI.

This was our real only disappointment. Lynn was so looking into visiting the store at the North Pole. She was not a happy Cindy Lou Who....they were a Grinch for advertising they would be open but they weren't.

Lynn with her Queen wave on Santa's sled at North Pole.

Caribou near Eureka and more pics from the area....just an amazing section of the trip.

Fairbanks I believe.

Moose...name comes from the comes from the Algonquin word for “twig eater.

Start of Tour of Anchorage xc ski race.

The finish.

After Su100 bike race. Reindeer sausage breakfast.

Palmer.

Seward.

Lynn picked up a couple vintage firs, this is one of them....very nice!

More from Eureka.

Hillside xc ski area, Anchorage...a bit of competition for the trail.

Just down the street from hosts Bill and Sheryl. One thing we noticed that although there were many days that were cloudy in Anchorage, it was never just socked in 100%. If it was cloud covered from the north, there was normally a view of the mountains from a different direction. If you like to see mountains on a consistant basis, this might be the city for you.

Mt. Susitna, Sleeping Lady.

Homer....what could be a better "picture" to look at while relaxing on the spit and having dinner?

Homer Museum....the small bone is what is considered the remains of the pelvis/rear legs when whales evolved from land to the sea. Interesting.

Salty Dawg Saloon, Homer...I first heard about this place when working in Oregon back in the mid 1970's after a few co-workers visited it. Like most places similar, it was a bit of a hype. Didn't even have tap beer. A small group of very nice young men from Texas and Oklahoma who were having a brew between the long boat ride from an oil rig out in the Bay and a plane ride home for their 3 weeks off. One took this picture for us.

Homer.

Seward.

Anchorage, Iditarod sprint races held before the Iditarod. Different class of dogs.